Everything You Need to Know About 'Big Little Lies' Season Two

Sound the alarms: After an *extremely* long wait and much anticipation, HBO has Big Little Lies will officially be returning for a second season. Here's what we know so far about season two of the HBO hit.

Release Date

The second season is set to have seven episodes, and will likely premiere in 2019. When HBO programming chief Casey Bloys was if the second season might air in 2018, he gave a definitive no. "No. They start shooting in the spring. It's not going to air in 2018."

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Cast

Most of the season one cast is expected to return and contract negotiations are currently underway. However, there *is* going to be a bit of a changeup: The show is , Andrea Arnold, replacing season one director Jean-Marc Vallée. Vallée will remain an executive producer.

A post shared by (@reesewitherspoon) on Sep 18, 2017 at 10:11am PDT

Reese Witherspoon on the exciting news: “I’m thrilled to be bringing back this talented team of artists. It gives us the opportunity to delve deeper into the lives of these intriguing and intricate Monterey families and bring more of their stories back to the audience who embraced and championed them," she said. "I’m beyond excited to be working with talented and acclaimed director Andrea Arnold, who will be at the helm. Andrea’s unique storytelling style will be a welcome addition to the film-making team.”

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The most notable addition to the cast is, of course, Meryl Streep. The Oscar-winner and all-around goddess will play Perry's mom—who understandably has a lot of questions about her son's death.

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Filming

Auditions for new characters took place in December and production kicked off in March 2018—in Monterey, naturally.

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On April 5, Nicole Kidman posted on Instagram that filming had officially begun and included a picture of herself and Meryl Streep on set.

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Plot

Not much is known about the plot of Big Little Lies' second season. The first season was based on a book, but since the book has no sequel, fans were left wondering where the story would go next. BLL author Liane Moriarty wrote the story for the show's second season, so, whatever is in store, we can count on the same dark and mysterious tone.

HBO's official log line for season two is: "The subversive, darkly comedic drama Big Little Lies will explore the malignancy of lies, the durability of friendships, the fragility of marriage and, of course, the vicious ferocity of sound parenting. Relationships will fray, loyalties will erode…the potential for emotional and bodily injury shall loom."

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As for the possibility of a third season, Bloys says it all depends on the very busy cast's schedules.

"Everybody involved is so busy that it's hard to imagine aligning everybody's schedule again," he . "The fact that we were able to get season two together is a small miracle. Could we do it again? Who knows?! It's a great group. They love working together and they're really fun to work with. But everybody is really busy. So let's see."